Posts tagged: OA in the Developing World

Infectious Agents & Cancer announces new ‘Clinical oncology’ section

Philip Dooner on May 21, 2013 at 2:56 pm - 0 Comments

Clinical oncology in Western countries is currently characterized by preventative programs (which include early diagnosis), combined treatments (radio-chemo-surgery), reconstructive surgery, and, more recently, by tailored treatment with monoclonal antibodies or specific inhibitors based on newly identified cancer biomarkers. Clinical oncology in the rest of the world, which represents 85.3% of the Earth’s population, has different priorities, strategies and aims, which are often difficult to compare. Major differences are not only due to the different socio-economical conditions and the national health programs, but also to disparities in cancer burden and their etiopathogenesis, as well the population-based genetic susceptibility. A further major difference is the age-distribution of the population. In the Western world, the population is very much aged, with people aged …

Rare diseases – guest blog by David Molyneux and Lorenzo Savioli

Srimathy Sriskantharajah on February 27, 2013 at 5:21 pm - 0 Comments

Elephantiasis. Source: Sara Holmes Liverpool School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Elephantiasis, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, dracunculiasis, neurocysticercosis – if you have heard of these diseases at all, you probably think of them as being rare diseases, but in all probability you’ve never heard of them or many other diseases like them. They are part of a group of infections called the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – diseases of neglected populations, those who are at the bottom of the social and economic ladder, the so-called “bottom billion”. They are, in short, infections which are most prevalent amongst the poorest.

WHO estimates that over a billion people are infected with these “rare” conditions with many more at risk. NTDs do not reach the political radar screen, as those infected have no …

Call for papers: Infectious Agents & Cancer announces series on Burkitt Lymphoma

Philip Dooner on February 7, 2013 at 9:55 am - 0 Comments

Franco M Buonaguro and Sam M Mbulaiteye, Editors-in-Chief of Infectious Agents & Cancer, would like to invite you to submit your manuscript to a new thematic series, entitled “Burkitt Lymphoma, Beyond Discoveries” which will be published in the journal.

Burkitt Lymphoma (BL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that was first described by Dennis Burkitt in 1958 in Ugandan children. Since then, numerous breakthroughs, including the discovery of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and its links to the disease, have been made. The most important of these discoveries has been the demonstration of curability of lymphoma which has re-invigorated efforts to use chemotherapy to treat cancer and helped establish some of the key principles of chemotherapy for …

World AIDS Day 1st December 2012

Hilary Glover on November 30, 2012 at 3:14 pm - 0 Comments

Saturday 1st December is World AIDS Day. World Aids Day was the first global health awareness day held in 1988 to help commemorate those who have died of AIDS, raise awareness of the disease, and help drive support for people living with HIV. 25 years on, this year the WHO has defined this year as World AIDS Day 2012: Getting to Zero.

100,000 people are currently living with HIV in the UK alone – worldwide this number is estimated to be 34 million which includes 3.3 million children. Each day almost 7,000 are people newly infected and although antiretroviral therapy is increasingly allowing people to lead normal lives 1.7 million people died of AIDS in 2011.

The Terrance …

Open Access Africa 2012 – the round up

Rebecca Fairbairn on November 19, 2012 at 4:25 pm - 0 Comments

Last week was a significant time for open access in Africa. BioMed Central’s third Open Access Africa conference at the University of Cape Town (UCT), was followed by the Berlin10 open access meeting, at the University of Stellenbosch. Both events were so rich in content that it is hard to do them justice in a blog. Luckily for me, this storify by Jonathan Harle of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, provides an excellent commentary.

I will touch on some of the points raised at Open Access Africa, which was a refreshing chance to take a detailed look at the implications of open access for African research. UCT provided a great setting, with impressive representation …

Open Access Week – 22 to 28 October 2012

Andi Tucker on October 22, 2012 at 3:43 pm - 0 Comments

Open Access Week is upon us and BioMed Central is proud to sponsor this international endeavor to raise awareness of both the existence and the benefits of open access. Now in its sixth year, OA Week encourages participation from the entire academic and research community and ultimately aims to make open access a global norm.

BioMed Central is buzzing with activity to celebrate this worthwhile week and to help spread the word we have created a set of posters which can be freely downloaded and displayed wherever they might be useful. We are also organising and participating in a number of events across the world aimed at raising open access awareness to local and international audiences, such as …